Organisation, armament and vehicles

The first volume was dealt with dress, equipment and insignia used by the campaigning Tommy; this second volume deals with the important chapters on individual and group armament, as well as the different material used by the various arms and services of the front-line units.

Moreover - and this is the principal link with the first volume - the order of battle and the organisation of the different formations engaged in the Northwest Europe theatre of operations enable us to locate the exact position of the units that were incorporated in these formations. All units are listed in the appendix of this book.

Let us conclude this introduction by saying that these pages, by means of the numerous tables showing the markings, give us the opportunity of identifying the origin of the units to which vehicles and machines were affected with a degree of precision when consulting period documents.

This is one of the major elements of this second volume which concludes this vast fresque given over to The British Soldiers.

Jean Bouchery.